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An exasperating trend of recalls in the consumer goods market, amid a faceless ignorance of purchasers’ feelings, proves that corporate self-awareness is at an all-time low

I’m on a plane from the UK to the US, tens of thousands of feet above the Atlantic, when a voice over the PA asks anyone with a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 to switch it off immediately and not use it at all during the flight. Having just recently returned my car to the dealership following a recall issued over safety concerns around the model’s airbags, it made me wonder: how did it become okay for substandard products to be released to the consumer? What’s worse than having to take time out to have the problem rectified, is the fact that there was no ‘apology for the inconvenience caused’. Instead, the dealer suggested that I be grateful that the fault was picked up.

Thanks to the growth of technology, East Africa has become more connected to the wider world than ever. One organisation that has worked hard to encourage links between the region’s firms and those overseas is UK Trade & Investment (UKTI). Following the UK’s Brexit vote, and subsequent change of government, UKTI was absorbed into the new Department of International Trade (DIT), where it continues to support relationships between the British private sector and its foreign counterparts.

Under the new banner of International Trade & Investment, the team will have much to do in the coming years to strengthen the UK’s global business ties, as the country adjusts to life outside the European Union. As a Kenya-based DIT trade officer,Njeri Mugois part of that effort – and is eager to ensure that the Department’s contacts and expertise will empower East African companies to fulfil their ambitions.

Here, Njeri talks to Inemmo about the business climate in East Africa – and the valuable role that psychometrics can play in boosting leadership and talent in the region.

Freelancers must adapt to succeed in the gig economy – whether that means adjusting to a host of different clients’ spaces, or kitting out their own

What’s next for the so-called ‘gig economy’? That’s the question on everyone’s lips following a landmark tribunal ruling of 28 October that found in favour of drivers working under the Uber banner. An employment judge ruled that the disruptive taxi app had shirked its obligations by failing to provide staff with sick pay, holiday pay or the National Living Wage – casting an instant shadow over the practices of other firms who round up de facto full-time workforces from the nation’s freelance ranks.